Selective Outrage on Campus

Following the forced resignations of the President and Provost of the University of Missouri, demonstrations against campus administrators has spread across the country. Students -- many of whom are Black, gay, transgender and Muslim -- claim that they feel "unsafe" as the result of what they call "white privilege" or sometimes simply privilege. "Check your privilege" has become the put-down du jour. Students insist on being protected by campus administrators from "micro-aggressions," meaning unintended statements inside and outside the classroom that demonstrate subtle insensitivities towards minority students. They insist on being safe from hostile or politically incorrect ideas. They demand "trigger warnings" before sensitive issues are discussed or assigned. They want to own the narrative and keep other points of view from upsetting them or making them feel unsafe.

Many university students, manifesting a widespread culture of victimization and grievance, claim that they feel "unsafe" as the result of what they call "white privilege". "Check your privilege" has become the put-down du jour.

These current manifestations of a widespread culture of victimization and grievance are only the most recent iterations of a dangerous long-term trend on campuses both in the United States and in Europe. The ultimate victims are freedom of expression, academic freedom and the free exchange of ideas. Many faculty members, administrators and students are fearful of the consequences if they express politically incorrect or dissident views that may upset some students. So they engage in self-censorship. They have seen what had happened to those who have expressed unpopular views, and it is not a pretty picture.

I know, because I repeatedly experienced this backlash when I speak on campuses. Most recently, I was invited to deliver the Milton Eisenhower lecture at Johns Hopkins University. As soon as the lecture was announced, several student groups demanded that the invitation must be rescinded. The petition objected to my mere "presence" on campus, stating that my views on certain issues "are not matters of opinion, and cannot be debated" and that they are "not issues that are open to debate of any kind." These non-debatable issues include some of the most controversial concerns that are roiling campus today: sexual assault, academic integrity and the Israel-Palestine conflict. The protesting students simply didn't want my view on these and other issues expressed on their campus, because my lecture would make them feel unsafe or uncomfortable.

The groups demanding censorship of my lecture included Hopkins Feminists, Black Student Union, Diverse Sexuality and General Alliance, Sexual Assault Resource Unit and Voice for Choice. I have been told that two faculty members urged these students, who had never heard of me, to organize the protests, but the cowardly faculty members would not themselves sign the petition. The petition contained blatant lies about me and my views, but that is beside the point. I responded to the lies in my lecture and invited the protesting students to engage me during the Q and A. But instead, they walked out in the middle of my presentation, while I was discussing the prospects for peace in the Middle East.

According to the Johns Hopkins News-Letter, another petition claimed that "by denying Israel's alleged war crimes against Palestinians," I violated the university's "anti-harassment policy" and its "statement of ethical standards." In other words, by expressing my reasonable views on a controversial subject, I harassed students.

Some of the posters advertising my lecture were defaced with Hitler mustaches drawn on my face. Imagine the outcry if comparably insensitive images had been drawn on the faces of invited minority lecturers.

I must add that the Johns Hopkins administration and the student group that invited me responded admirably to the protests, fully defending my right to express my views and the right of the student group to invite me. The lecture went off without any hitches and I answered all the questions -- some quite critical, but all polite -- for the large audience that came to hear the presentation.

The same cannot be said of several other lectures I have given on other campuses, which were disrupted by efforts to shout me down, especially by anti-Israel groups that are committed to preventing pro-Israel speakers from expressing their views.

The point is not only that some students care less about freedom of expression in general than about protecting all students from "micro-aggressions." It is that many of these same students are perfectly willing to make other students with whom they disagree with feel unsafe and offended by their own micro- and macro-aggressions. Consider, for example, a recent protest at the City University of New York by Students for Justice in Palestine that blamed high tuition on "the Zionist Administration [of the University that] invests in Israeli companies, companies that support the Israeli occupation, hosts birthright programs and study abroad programs in occupied Palestine [meaning Israel proper] and reproduces settler-colonial ideology throughout CUNY though Zionist content of education."

Let's be clear what they mean by "Zionist": they mean "Jew". There are many Jewish administrators at City University. Some are probably Zionists. Others are probably not. Blaming Zionists for high tuition is out and out anti-Semitism. It is not micro-aggression. It is in-your-face macro-aggression against City University Jews.

Yet those who protest micro-aggressions against other minorities are silent when it comes to Jews. This is not to engage in comparative victimization, but rather to expose the double standard, the selective outrage and the overt hypocrisy of many of those who would sacrifice free speech on the altar of political correctness, whose content they seek to dictate.

Alan M. Dershowitz is the Felix Frankfurter Emeritus Professor at Harvard Law School and the author of two new books: "The Case Against the Iran Deal: How Can We Now Stop Iran from Getting Nukes?, " available on Kindle and other e-book sites and Abraham: The World's First (But Certainly Not Last) Jewish Lawyer, available on Amazon.

Comment on this item

47 Reader Comments

Empress Trudy • Nov 16, 2015 at 11:40

Why give them the opportunity to complain and whine at all. Everyone with half a brain should simply boycott ever speaking on any college campus. If they ask, don't respond yes or no. Don't go don't speak. There is no reason to justify their infantile lunacy with anything resembling a reasoned response.

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steven L • Nov 15, 2015 at 01:18

The liberal media, the liberal colleges and the Middle Eastern studies professors are all involved in a so-called progressive movement whose only purpose is subversive and whose goal is the destruction of democracy through PC, the ultimate denial of free speech and the promotion of antisemitism. Liberalism is failing the minority students for they have no understanding of the fact that they are being manipulated at their own expense. They will be the first losers because they have been lied to. Their ignorance deprive them of the ability to discover the facts. They have been subjected to a brainwashing no different from what is going on in the madrases. Liberalism is drifting slowly but surely towards socialism, which has failed in Europe. The socialist western world is living at the expense of the "3rd world" and refuses to amend.

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Chris S • Nov 14, 2015 at 16:26

It is great to read about social issues but we need to look for solutions too. Let's start doing that, otherwise the analysis is just not enough to build a better life.

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Scott Zwartz • Nov 14, 2015 at 13:32

There is a difference between the prejudices of individuals and prejudice as an official state policy. Individuals with prejudices often try to impose their bigotry on to society's institutions. Individuals believe that most of their individual liberties are safe when it comes to the government, although Gay individuals are still fighting this battle.

Things are not as perfect as we would believe. Sometimes those who urge their personal prejudices upon the government and school administrators are very vocal; other times, the bigotry operates silently and mostly unseen. The California judiciary is one institution where religious discrimination has been recently approved.

This November 205, a second Jewish attorney was forced to withdraw from a case when the same justice threatened him with $76,000.00 in monetary sanctions.

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Harvey • Nov 14, 2015 at 13:06

As the writer has sadly shown, the truth about controversial issues must not be discussed PUBLICLY, as heaven forbid people might start to ask the correct questions as to what is really going on in the Mid East and elsewhere. Much better to keep up the standard rhetoric of the Marxist left and there supporters that "The Jews are the reason the poor (sic) Palestinians are kept in poverty by the Israelis" etc etc. It's the same brainwashing being bandied by most of the Arab despots and their proxies posing as men of religion in their mosques.

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Frank Adam • Nov 14, 2015 at 05:26

To put it in a less macho fashion: Those who make the World safe for children make it dangerous for adults for not learning how to cope.

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Ellen • Nov 13, 2015 at 20:18

I heard Mr. Dershowitz give this speech on TV. How much are these students actually learning if anything in college? When do they study? Are they too busy with nonsensical protests to get through school and graduate and get a a real job? What wimps has this generation produced? I wouldn't want to pay tuition for any of my children going to such a far left institution where the president quits because of the students and where the students are upset with something they should discuss it in class or with the administration rather than protest, but I'm not sure what they want? Nothing I have heard sounds like it is worth all the trouble they have started. Are they so pampered? Are they so protected they have no thick skins? Wait till they start in a job and have a no-nonsense boss. They can stand up to someone with whom they disagree instead of what they are doing. I agree with Mr. Dershowitz and I think these students are hypocrites. They protest on some items but are silence against others whom they hurt by their silence.

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Yaffa Ellen • Apr 10, 2016 at 05:15

It seems like USA's universities are ongoing a culture revolution like the one that was held in China... I bet none of those students read or heard about it and its devastating results.

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Frances Weingarten • Nov 13, 2015 at 18:55

It seems to me that most of the concerns you describe come from minority groups who have found a way to intimidate the majority by protesting anything and everything that doesn't speak to their distorted needs. This is especially prevalent where Israel is concerned. Anti-semitism is rampant on college campuses in many guises but is mainly disguised as disapproval of much of what Israel does, especially in regard to the Palestinians. I believe that we are living in a world which on the one hand uses freedom of speech as a way to silence voices with which they don't agree and on the other hand capitulates to the voices of minorities out of fear of recrimination. This situation doesn't bode well for any of us but especially for Israel, which has become the punching bag for all things wrong in the world.

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Zooni • Nov 13, 2015 at 16:28

Values are things we apply evenly and to everyone. When asked if the Jewish people have the right to escape violence and persecution and live in Israel, Islamic believers will reply no. When asked if Muslims have the right to escape violence and persecution and live in the EU, Islamic believers will reply yes. This is not the expression of true values, but using values as tools to effect a positive outcome for Islam.

The positive outcome for Islam is a negative outcome for everyone else and especially for the Jewish people.

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Lyn Rubenstein • Nov 13, 2015 at 13:38

That was a great article by Alan Dershowitz. These students will demonstrate against anything except anti-Semitism. What should happen in all of these universities is that the presidents and professors grow some backbone. Exams should be ordered to be given while there are demonstrations. If students fail to show, they get a zero, no makeups allowed. In Missouri, if the football players, as great as they aren't, decided not to play, they should have been threatened with losing their scholarships. The kids should be told in all cases that if 5 classes in the same subject are missed in a row, they fail the class. Let's see how parents like paying $40,000-$60,000/yearly and the kids fail? How about a college course in understanding the tenets of the First Amendment? These are the same kids who got trophies for showing up at games. These kids are followers. Half of them have no idea what they are doing and why, and these are going to be our next leaders, a bunch of followers who can't think for themselves. Are these professors really the very best our country has to offer? After seeing what is happening at Yale, supposedly one of the finest universities in the country, would any one of you really want to send a child of yours there? I would avoid it like the plague!

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Lee Karnes • Nov 13, 2015 at 13:02

I'm amazed that the "liberal" politically correct schools in our nation are so intolerant and closed minded to differing opinions. Liberty University, a bastion of conservatism has had Bernie Sanders as well as a host of conservatives with differing views speak in convocation. Hillary Clinton has been invited to speak but has not yet accepted the invitation. Regardless of a speaker's core values, this right leaning Christian school has given complete respect to the speaker. Despite opposing political beliefs, the late Jerry Falwell and Ted Kennedy were friends. So much for the religious right not being tolerant or open...Who would have ever thought a conservative school like Liberty University would set the example for what should be acceptable behavior for all centers of learning. You might be surprised to know it was a part of Dr. Falwell's vision for the school.This world has gone crazy!

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robert davis • Nov 13, 2015 at 09:44

What these communist students want is the privilege to take on people while the latter give up their "privilege" to defend themselves. These leftwing students are future terrorists and will end up in jail or dead.

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Jeanmarie Amend • Nov 13, 2015 at 09:33

Alan, thank you. The stories defy belief. This is my father's school (of journalism) and one renowned for partiality toward none, in-depth approach to news writing and analysis, and, above all, human interest (!) and commitment to highest ideals in the inquiry into and exploration of, human experience. Can the sale of media stop the exploitation of the sensational reaction of persons, students and faculty and all concerned, otherwise reactive to emotional gash from political fundraisers and national correspondents' jeopardy, real treachery of risk from kidnapping, imprisonment and wrongful conviction of illegality charges.

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James Luce • Nov 13, 2015 at 08:16

Once again Professor Dershowitz has skewered the thoughtless, juvenile, and harmful refusal of various groups (minority and otherwise) to listen and learn...preferring instead to plug their ears with self-pity and ignorance. Unfortunately, these Brown-Shirted "Liberals" seem as a mob to be immortal...skewering does them no good. Younger readers of Prof. Dershowitz's columns may not recall the ironically named Free Speech Movement that flourished in a similar vein on college campuses in the 1960s. Those students too demonstrated against free speech while yelling loudly and exclusively in favor of "good speech". It's apparent that history, geography, comparative religion, and logic are no longer taught even at the college level, let alone high school. Well, maybe it is taught but the students aren't listening.

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Yaakov Watkins • Nov 13, 2015 at 07:52

The more things change the more they stay the same.

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Ora • Nov 13, 2015 at 06:44

Thank you Alan Dershowitz for standing up to those bullies. It is interesting that I read this article just after reading an article in the Los Angeles Times which seems to claim that Jews get preferential treatment when it comes to protests. The article was about the protests by African Americans at their treatment at the University of Missouri. The article ends with the words, "Would Wolfe (University of Missouri System President Tim Wolfe) have done so little, and would the media narrative be so mixed, if all the victims were Jewish instead of black?

I don't know where the writer of that article is living but it isn't on our planet. Alan Dershowitz tells it as it is.

Article by Daniel Greenfield on this matter...http://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/260744/crymobs-crybullying-and-lefts-whiny-war-speech-daniel-greenfield

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Jeremiah • Nov 13, 2015 at 05:23

We have a choice of not sending our children to universities for a year. We can demand that they publish the political affiliation of its staff as a condition for continued enrollment.

In the meantime, our students could mature for a year by taking volunteer positions to learn how to help others rather than abuse others. That year will be valuable in changing the culture of the university and it may allow us better selection of the education of out students.

Some may have to close down . . .

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Michael Waugh • Nov 13, 2015 at 04:19

Political correctness is becoming a worldwide plague particularly amongst the lowlife in some universities. Leftwing thinkers in the UK and Europe are also to blame.

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Andy Gill • Nov 13, 2015 at 02:59

Many universities are now hotbeds of anti-Israel bigotry, which seamlessly spills over into bullying and in-your-face anti-Semitism.

Anti-Zionists are the most racist and intolerant sub-group in academia. I think it was Julie Burchill who coined the term cry-bully, which captures the mixture of pathetic whining and vicious aggression the anti-Zionists display.

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James Currin • Nov 13, 2015 at 00:32

Although I am distressed that Alan Dershowitz cannot get a fair hearing on college campuses, I am equally distressed that he cannot connect this phenomenon to his life long attachment to liberal politics, which is at the root of the present situation on college campuses.

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Andrew H • Nov 13, 2015 at 00:29

Here we have proof of the old adage: Spare the rod, spoil the child. We owe the little dears some examples to give them perspective on the feeling of "unsafe." I suggest visits by the National Guard and some good old fashioned kicks in the butt.

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Sarah Hardy • Nov 12, 2015 at 23:20

Mr. Dershowitz, I appreciate your honest look at what is happening in our institutions of higher learning. It's not bad enough that the students are getting a sud-standard education compared to the broad base of knowledge taught in the time of my parents; while instead they receive a diploma for passing a subject matter that is tightly focused and taught according to the ever growing political correctness of the day. Even my child's and my own studies were inadequate to give anyone a truly well rounded education. Thank goodness for parents who encourage children to explore more than is required. Perhaps the pendulum will swing back again in time for my grandchild to experience a lively and well rounded education. In the meantime, her parochial school teachers, her parents, and I continue to challenge her to seek out her own opinions on various subject matters beyond the standard curriculum offered. We also applaud her confidence in speaking her mind. Keep exposing the hypocrisy and encouraging serious debate.

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Timothy Hadley • Nov 12, 2015 at 23:11

Thank you, Mr. Dershowitz, for thoughtful and pointed comments. University administrators and faculty are, IMO, receiving the just rewards of their decades-long teaching of "identity politics" on their campuses. We are seeing today the results of that enterprise. This raises the crucial question: Why are they going to college if they already know everything?

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Nancy Cuddeback • Nov 12, 2015 at 22:49

This what happens when you let too many Muslims into a Western nation. I'd say it's long overdue for a immigration moratorium.

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dm Nancy Cuddeback • Nov 16, 2015 at 03:16

Exactly the same scenario in India, Muslims are pretending they are a minority group and that they are being mistreated. This is a world wide Muslim agenda to psychologically manipulate, mislead the population at large, a population which sadly seems to be lacking in knowledge relating to historical world events, to be able to evaluate what is the reality of a so-called minority group. We perhaps should not blame the tax-paying population, based on the disgraceful scenario with the European leaders decision to destroy their people and their country.

There is obviously a bigger picture here based on the efforts by Russia to arm itself against whoever, seemingly the USA, who are using the Ukraine episode to blacken the Russian aura and try to take the heat of the marauding refugees.

If we cannot speak, we cannot debate, we cannot vent our views !!! How do people learn? For the faculty to resign is a cowardly disgrace unless perhaps their lives and families were threatened ?

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Ron • Nov 12, 2015 at 22:47

Excellent article, well expressed, and it IS scary. What troubles me most is that the sheer courage that many intellectuals of the fifties and sixties exhibited in combating the excesses of, say, McCarthyism, seems to flee in the presence of the new totalitarians, the fascists of the micro-view. I am Christian in my beliefs and value system and probably characterized "conservative" -- I believe in the nuclear family, with a father and mother, honesty and tolerance of those of other views although I don't feel obliged to agree with them. What I find is an apprehension in expressing what I think is right, even on a platform like this, because of the ferocity of the self appointed thought police of the new left. I don't buy the Palestinian propaganda against Israel, but to say that in public here (South Africa) would probably get my business attacked! Certainly a retailer here is getting the full spleen of BDS vented against it for selling some clearly marked Israeli goods. I buy them, but I am amazed to find myself furtive. I wonder if I, and intellectuals like those who were cowed in Missouri, are not like those who took the easy way in Nazi occupied Europe -- collaborators?

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Lance • Nov 12, 2015 at 22:24

All of the Western nations are like this, over here in Canada its just as bad, freedom of speech and democracy are dead, just wait till these students are in government and other places of power, all hell will break loose.....

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Robbins Mitchell • Nov 12, 2015 at 22:07

Abraham was not Jewish, Alan....he was a western Semite called by the Almighty out of the Ur of Chaldees when his name was still Abram...Jews did not exist as such until the formation of the 12 tribes...and then split into Israel and Judah much later...Jews being members of the tribes of Judah and Benjamin...I'm appalled that such an erudite scholar such as yourself could make such a rookie mistake.

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Mutantone • Nov 12, 2015 at 21:41

Just what are they going to do in history class? Ethics? Reading? Just what sort of education are they looking for, the comic book version of classics? Censored lessons so they will not be upset when 2+4 equals 6 and not 10?As a nation we are doomed in this selective learning environment they seek to limit us with. It is the equivalent of the Dark Ages when the church doctrine was all that was allowed to be taught.These "students" need a large dose of reality they need to see what real life is like as they are thrown down from their ivory towers

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Henry Saltsman • Nov 12, 2015 at 21:21

So equality is one of the watch words of our times. It is invoked in nearly every political, ethical, social and institutional discussion, with it wandering off as far left as the African Serengeti.What really comes to mind as I read this commentary, for me, is C.S. Lewis' famous epilogue to "The Screwtape Letters," entitled, "Screwtape Proposes a Toast." In it, the retired tempter tells graduates of a demonic college to teach mankind that good habits -- the type that enrich society (similar to what the family unit does) -- are "undemocratic." Instead of nurturing and encouraging virtues like morality and academic excellence, he says, humans should be trained to resent and destroy them.Screwtape's goal is the "eliminating of every kind of human excellence -- moral, cultural, social or intellectual."I suppose we could expect this type of logic and thinking from an Australopithecine undersecretary from hell, but not from tenured educators and scholars.To educate children well is one of the most important duties as parents. To my thinking, education comprehends all that series of instruction and discipline which is intended to enlighten the understanding, correct the temperament, and form the social habits and manners of youth, and make each one fit for usefulness in their chosen station in life. To provide our youth sound education in the social graces, arts and sciences, are without question of vital importance. Further, though, to provide for them a religious foundational education is, (now being proven), absolutely indispensable. An immense responsibility rests on the parents, teachers and educators, if, in any fashion, these duties are neglected.Well,....fail we have...education used to be mind-expanding and now it has become mind-limiting. Today's education amounts to propaganda and worse, indoctrination. Our youth, at every level, are being cheated, and one could not expose this deluded and spurious transhumanistic agenda without talking about the liberal elitists collectivism in Washington.Holding this ideology, what can we expect from the confusion and fears the youth are seeing from the DOE? I believe the issues we are seeing are not the problem. I believe there exists a great fear and uncertainty in the hearts and souls of the college youth. Uncertain if there will even be an economic structure that could sustain a chosen field in life, fearful that their future holds only contemptuous government that will expropriate any income as a trade-off for the government support and protection, uncertain if the future will even exist as we know it to be.I know of no Socialistic government that has survived and prospered through the history of time, yet the insistent Democratic ideology continues to erode away social and economic liberties, only to replace them with saber-toothed psychological lies and deceptions through jingoism in an obsequious arcane paradigm.In conclusion, if this current panic on college campuses is allowed to continue unchecked, society as we know it will be forced to change more quickly than the prophecy in the Book of Daniel indicates. I am not a prognosticator, but a simple realist.

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Bob Parkman • Nov 12, 2015 at 21:06

Was the alignment of Marxist ideology with the religious intolerance of radical Islam that seems to be behind this. For some time, professional organizers have been building and funding pro-Palestinian organizations on college campuses. The funding for these groups has historically come from wealthy Saudis. Moderating their Sharia instincts to align with non-religious socialists allows funding to seem into these other groups. These non-religious socialists are the useful fools of the coming revolution as they will find they have been drawn in so tight that they cannot stop from following radical Islam top-to-bottom.

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Stuart Rose • Nov 12, 2015 at 20:22

I can't believe that Alan Dershowitz and I share a perspective on an issue even though his viewpoint is well to left of mine. Unfortunately the article is sad but true, with no suggestion of where we go from here.

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Kathy Young • Nov 12, 2015 at 20:22

What a bunch of crybabies! They claim that anybody's expressing free speech that they don't agree with harms them? Give them a blankey, and let them go suck their thumbs. What a sorry, weak, fragile bunch of crybabies. Thank God the Founding Fathers can't see what their descendants look like. They'd be profoundly ashamed of them.

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Rachel • Nov 12, 2015 at 20:19

And of course this "spontaneous" national student protest movement has George Soros' filthy fingerprints all over it. So what else is new.

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Ronald Hargreave • Nov 12, 2015 at 20:10

"The protesting students simply didn't want my view on these and other issues expressed on their campus, because my lecture would make them feel unsafe or uncomfortable."

Wrong. They didn't want Dershowitz's view on these and other issues expressed on their campus because his lecture would challenge their facts and their reasoning -- something they are unprepared to accept.

In other words, perhaps without realizing it, perhaps very much realizing it, what these students demand is a dictatorship in which they control all thought and all expression.

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David Witmer • Nov 12, 2015 at 19:47

I had occasion to pick up a copy of William Manchesters's book "A World Lit Only By Fire" and reread it after many years. His discussion of the medieval mind is frighteningly similar to many of the protesting students in today's universities.Manchester briefly discusses the 14th century split of the papacy between Rome and Avignon. "In another age, so shocking a split would have created a crisis among the faithful, but there was no room in the medieval mind for doubt; the possibility of skepticism simple did not exist."The fatuous certainty of their liberal correctness preempts the possibility of any but their own truths.

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inna narod • Nov 12, 2015 at 19:40

simply perfectly said, as usual!

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Gregory Bigelow • Nov 12, 2015 at 19:36

People who fear having a moral standard to live by scream the loudest because they prefer having their conscious seared rather than reaching for goals that lead to wholesome fulfilling lives that have a standards. Adhere to a standard means I can't do whatever I want and whatever I feel like doing. More and more people are choosing darkness rather than the light. Truth is inconvenient and has boundaries. Boundaries is something darkness does not like. They lead to personal accountability. Facing ones own heart truthfully. They would prefer confusion. Anything rather than recognizing the truth of the nature that coming up from ones own heart. It is called fear.

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Eddie Lowenstein • Nov 12, 2015 at 19:36

I am outraged these students are allowed to get away with what they are doing. Their actions are those of anarchists and should not be tolerated. If they want safe space where they can practice racism and political correctness they should be sent home to their mommies for a good ass kicking.

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Luette • Nov 12, 2015 at 19:33

While ISIS murdered 200 children for believing in Christ, and is burning people to death, as they sweep through devastated communities--American youth are focused on me, myself and I, and their tiny wee hurt feelings. News Flash for the micro intelligent...you haven't a prayer of survival for what is coming to this nation. All your me, myself and I cries for comfort are an Insult to people who are fighting for their lives simply to exist in an horrifically evil world.

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Stephanie Kay • Nov 12, 2015 at 19:29

How frightening university campuses are becoming. What happened to freedom of speech and an honest exchange of ideas? It is time to stand up to these students and say ENOUGH! The Palestinians have NEVER allowed a Jewish speaker to complete a talk. They are known to get up and walk out, or yell the entire time so speakers are unable to present their talk. I say we need to set standards for behavior and if they don't like them, they can drop out of school. Many aren't even students, just sent to be rabble rousers. What a sad state for universities.

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Stanley Stephanie Kay • Nov 16, 2015 at 08:51

It is time to put PC (political correctness) to bed. It is being used by thugs in the guise of protestors to wreak havoc in our country, especially in our schools.PLEASE STOP THE NONSENSE!

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David B. • Nov 12, 2015 at 19:19

Again, Bravo, Professor Dershowitz! As a former instructor at the US Army War College, I find the concept of such intellectual censorship based on narrow political intrigues very disturbing. In Carlisle, we were able to politely listen to diverse opinions from all political spectrums and over 43 International students (including some from Israel and many Arab states). That Johns Hopkins University has sunk to such woefully ignorant depths is a disturbing bellwether for our Republic. Thanks for having the courage, will and calm to intelligently debunk the lies of BDS and other movements.

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David Ashton • Nov 12, 2015 at 19:09

Jew and Zionist are not synonymous. But both are entitled to free speech on campus and elsewhere. We should provide a safe space for knowledge and discussion, not "safe space" that excludes it. This "micro-aggression" nonsense needs exposure. Better an open debate between a Dershowitz and a Finkelstein than no debate at all.

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J Dori Callahan • Nov 12, 2015 at 18:54

Everyone of these students should be expelled from college sent home to grow up. Apparently they have not been taught that life itself is not fair nor equal. People are born rich and poor fat and skinny, beautiful and ugly, stupid and intelligent. Everyone falls into the same category and each person will either succeed or fail in their chosen paths. It has absolutely nothing to do with color, sex or anything else. Everyone must learn to be strong and learn to work around the obstacles in life. No one owes anybody anything...what one does in life is a personal choice, but your choice cannot demand others to change theirs. If you don't like the way life treats you where you are then leave and find a place where you feel comfortable. You do not have the right to change another person, you can only change yourself...the person responsible for what you are and what you will become.

Ali Mohammed al-Nimr, a prisoner in Saudi Arabia who was sentenced to death as a minor, faces "death by crucifixion" after a final appeal has been dismissed. He was arrested in 2012 when he was just 17, during a crackdown on anti-government protests in the Shiite province of Qatif. According to the International Business Times, Al-Nimr was accused by the authorities of participation in illegal protests and of firearms offences, despite there being no evidence to justify the latter charge.

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